Monarch Butterflies, I think. They’re pretty distinctive so it’s a safe bet.
We came across a field that was filled with wildflowers, all along the edge were butterflies. We were on a dirt track that we drive to stop by an inlet that will sometimes have Dolphin pods fishing. Tide must be high but it’s always worth a stop. In this case no Dolphin but we did find the Monarchs.
Specs; OM-1 (1), Olympus 40-150 r (I think, don’t have the details handy). Finished with ON1, Topaz.
This is the outlier. He moves around the edges of this rookery.
Great Blues are solitary for most of the year. For about 4 months starting in January here they pair up in swamps. Otherwise the stay alone. Also few others bother them.
What you don’t see here is the wider view. There are hundreds of white birds all around. He just stays away.
Best viewed large.
I didn’t realize I had caught the Great Egret in the act of stealing sticks for her own nest.
This is pretty common in busy rookeries. All the birds are crowded together and sooner or later a nest is left unguarded. Wait a few minutes and the neighbors dismantle it.
This one just happened while I was watching. 😁
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Too many swamp shots lately, I needed to mix it up a bit. The most opposite environment to photograph here is the shore, and everyone’s favorite the Pelicans.
This series also seemed like a good place to work in a new editor for image processing. For probably close to two years I have tried various different software to use as a backup to the usual Adobe Lightroom industry standard.
This series was done using ON1 and Topaz. As an editor ON1 has the ability to work with just about any RAW format as well as any other image file format. That’s a requirement for me. I like to use other systems as plugins. Lightroom always has interfaced with most other systems, ON1 does too. Most RAW editors don’t. Theres a reason Adobe owns the market. I love Lightroom, I just get frustrated with how sluggish it gets. ON1 is certainly not slow.
Nerd stuff aside; Brown Pelicans breed on the small barrier islands off the coast of the Lowcountry. They are one of the smaller Pelicans, but also one of only two that catch fish by diving from above.
Brown Pelicans off the Stono River inlet, South Carolina.
